Ship.



S. OUIMET.

SHIP. APPLICATION FILED JULYZG, 1915.

Patented Aug. i4, 1917'.`

2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

fly/w G w P t A 1.... M .m uw @m5 v S. OUIMET.

SHIP;

APPucATloN FILED 1uLY26..1915.

1,236,750. PmelutedAug.14,1917.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2..

l., Fig. 5

l .17.4' zg am...

NXTED STATES snArHrN oUnvrET, or MONTREAL, QUEBEC, cANADA.

SHIP.

Application led July 26,

To ZZ vwlw/n. t may concern:

Be it known that I, SRAPHIN OUIMET, al subject of the King of Great Britain, and resident of 76 St. Gabrielle street, in the city of Montreal, Province of Quebec, in the Dominion of Canada, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Ships; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same.

The invention relates to improvements in ships as described in the present specication and illustrated in the accompanying drawings that form part of the same.

The invention consists essentially of the novel construction, whereby a floatable up per story is readily detached from the body and skin of the vessel on the destruction of the latter and its consequent submergence.

The objects of the invention are to save the lives of passengers at sea in the event of a catastrophe, to avert the dangers incident to the use of life boats, to provide comparatively comfortable and safe quarters for passengers and crew pending the arrival of succor, to preserve the means of notifying other vessels of the distress of the ship and generally to minimize the ill effects of accidents at sea.

In the drawings, Figure l is a plan view of a Steamship showing the general arrangement of my invention.

Fig. 9. is a side elevation of the ship showing the new cabin structure.

Fig. 3 is a cross sectional view on the line A-B in Fig. 1.

Fig. 4 is a cross sectional view on the line C-D in Fig. 1.

Fig. 5 is a detail showing the upper deck with buoyancy tanks.

Like numerals of reference indicate corresponding parts in each figure.

Referring to the drawings, 1 is the outer skin of the ship from which is supported the saloon cabin deck 2 as customary, said saloon ldeck 2 forming the support for the deck house 3, the latter containing' numerous Staterooms and apartments, the walls of said house terminating at the upper decks 4, 5 and 6.

The upper decks 4, 5 and 6 are supported on the house 3 and on the stanchions 5a, but unlike the present day construction they are separable from said saloon house and stanchions.

The fore house 7 is supported on the deck Specicaton of Letters Patent.

Patented Aug. 14, 1917.

1915. seria1n0.41,941.

4 and securely bolted thereto and on all sides forms with said ydeck a water tight chamber having port holes 8 with water tight closures, entrances 9 from the top side and a funnel recess 10.

The mid house l1 is supported by and secured to the deck 5 and is similarly constructed to the house 7 and has the funnel recessess 12 and 13.

The aft house 14 is supported on and secured to the deck 6 is of similar construction to the other upper deck houses and has the funnel recess 15. l

These upper deck houses form the top story of the ship structure and are divided in the interior in any way that may be convenient and suitable according to the purposes of the ship, further the construction may be much different from that described, as so much depends on the type of ship, the essential feature in this part of the invention being the floatable and separable upper story.

The decks 4, 5 and 6 each have a central longitudinal girder 16 on the under side of sufficient weight to insure the proper location of the metacenter of each section of the upper story to prevent any one of said stories from capsizing when floating in the water.

The decks 4, 5 and 6 are preferably constructed of a material having aflinity to electro-magnetic influence, and the electromagnetic appliances 17, particulars of which are not described as they are well known, are supported by the house 3 and engage the decks 4, 5 and 6 and without other fasten- Vings hold the upper story sections securely in place until such time as the electric current which produces the magnetism is cut oft1 automatically by the flooding of the vessel or by a switch at the command of an oiiicer. Other means of fastening the upper story sections may be devised and used without departing from the spirit of the invention, and the said electro-magnetic means may be supported elsewhere than on a deck house, in fact such changes in construction may be made in any part of the structure as properly come within the scope of the claims for novelty following this description.

The funnels 18 are divided into upper and lower parts and if necessary these parts may be joined by electro-magnetic appliances. The guy cables of the funnels can be readily snapped or undone and if there are masts they can be treated in the same manner as the funnels or secured to the upper decks, such matters are for the consideration of the architects of the ship.

The upper story may be divided into as many sections as required and the entrances from the top can be readily closed by water tight doors, if it is found advisable to do so, though the sections are only supposed to draw a foot or two of water as they are preferably made of wood or other light material, further the decks 4, 5 and 6 may have buoyancy tanks as shown in Fig. 5, in fact buoyancy tanks may be placed anywhere in or about the sections of the upper story to insure the ioating of said sections when dei tached from the vessel.

The operation of the invention is extremely simple. The sections of the upper story with their ooring, namely the decks 4, 5 and 6 form water tight boxes, which are ordinarily used for cabins, chart rooms or other convenience, though perhaps the most important apartments in one of these sections is the wireless room from which distress messages may be sent with the aid of accumulators7 thus insuring succor.

The electric current generating machine of the ship ordinarily maintains the magnetism required from the appliances 17 to hold the upper story in place, therefore when the generator is put out of commission the upper decks are free and ioat away from the sinking hull, the funnels also parting and dropping away from the sections of the upper story.

In practice the passengers are preferably allotted to a section of the upper story in times of danger and from the experience gained in many catastrophes at sea it will be a comparatively simple matter to discipline them so as to avoid confusion in marshaling the several groups to their respective quarters. The whole transference of the passengers can be readily accomplished in a matter of minutes and once in their place they will be in safety until succor reaches them and this can be hastened by means of the wireless teleoraphy still in commission in one of the sections.

The terrible calamities resulting from ship wreck particularly of the large vessels now employed in ocean traflic make it compulsory for something to be done, that will provide more safety than can be had with life boats and while floating decks forming rafts and other floating top hamper have been devised in several forms, this particular type of structure is such as will preserve the survivors from exposure to the elements and at the same time be readily accessible to both passengers and crew.

What I claim is:

1. In a ship, a hull, decks supported by the hull, a separable and floatable upper deck house mounted above said hull, electromagnetic means normally securing said deck house in position whereby said deck house is released upon the submergence of the vessel.

2. In a ship, a hull, decks supported by the hull, a separable and iioatable deck house having a bottom susceptible to magnetic inuence, electro-magnetic means engaging said bottom and normally holding the deck house in position under favorable conditions, lsaid electro-magnetic means being of such nature as to release the deck house upon its submergence in water upon the sinking of the vessel.

Signed at the city of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, this eighteenth day of May, 1915.

SRAPHIN oUiMET.

Witnesses A. BAUER, M. MCCALLUM.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for ve cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, ID. C. 

